Man trying to preserve iconic Vidor home ravaged by vandals

Deep in the woods in Vidor lies one of the most interesting dwellings you may ever see. Known as the "Glass Bottle House", it once belonged to local artist Charlie Stagg. It's made almost entirely out of bottles and concrete, hand sculpted by Stagg himself.But since Stagg's death two years ago, vandals have marked the abandoned home with graffiti, and one man is trying to stop it.

Author:
kjac , KBMT

Published:
3:55 PM CDT July 3, 2014

Updated:
3:55 PM CDT July 3, 2014

Deep in the woods in Vidor lies one of the most interesting dwellings you may ever see. Known as the "Glass Bottle House", it once belonged to local artist Charlie Stagg. It's made almost entirely out of bottles and concrete, hand sculpted by Stagg himself.

But since Stagg's death two years ago, vandals have marked the abandoned home with graffiti. A "Beware of Dog" sign has been crossed out, replaced by the words, "Enter. No dogs". Another graffiti marking has the date 6-29-2014 on it, indicating that the vandalism has been going on very recently. In another room, beer bottles and cans fill an empty chest.

"I'm assuming that this vandalism is younger people that maybe aren't old enough to have an appreciation for the place, they don't know what it is, they think it's their little secret," said Kyle Ford.

Ford used to live down the street from Stagg, and even helped the artist build part of the structure back in 2004.

"He used to pick me up in the morning. I'd do the heavy lifting, mixing the concrete, stuff like that," he said.

Ford says he's deeply troubled by the lack of respect being shown for Stagg's work of art. He says he and a small group occasionally stop by to pick up trash, but are afraid to do much else since they don't own the property.

A few days ago Ford created a Facebook group called "Charlie's Vidor House" hoping it could help him find members of Stagg's family.

"Hopefully raise enough awareness that whoever's in charge of the property, whoever has legal say in it can maybe put up a gate, do something," said Ford.

So far Ford said he hasn't been able to find anyone with ties to the property, but he's not giving up. His ultimate goal is to turn it into a landmark, so that generations to come can appreciate it as the great Glass Bottle House instead of a party house.

Vidor Police Chief Dave Shows says he has not been made aware of any recent vandalism to the house, but says he knows it has been vandalized before. Shows also said he does not know who owns the property at this time.